Posted on 1st June 2022 by taralovestorun
On Sunday 29th May I took part in Edinburgh Marathon, this was my first time taking part in Edinburgh Marathon and this was my 16th marathon. I was scheduled to take part in this event in 2020 but with Covid it kept getting postponed and it eventually happened in 2022. Me and my sister flew up on Friday and we stayed in Edinburgh for 3 days and made a weekend of it. I have never been to Edinburgh before and it was nice to do some sight seeing. We arrived to our apartment on Friday afternoon and we then went into Edinburgh and had a walk around the city and we then had a glass of wine. We went and had dinner at Pizza Hut on Friday evening, I had to start carbing up! We had walked around 7 miles on Friday, when we finished dinner we headed back to our apartment, we stayed just outside Edinburgh in Haymarket.
On Saturday I tried to have a relaxing day, I had to try and rest my legs for the big day! My sister had booked us a table at an Italian restaurant, it just as well as we did book as the restaurant looked really busy and I don’t think we would have got a table otherwise. I had a glass of wine and Lasagne for dinner and I had cheesecake for dessert. When we had dinner we headed back to the apartment and then I watched a bit of tv and then did my flatlay and got my kit together for the big day.
When I went to bed on Saturday night I set my alarm for 6.40. The race was due to start around 10. When I got up and I had a shower and had my usual breakfast which was weetabix and a tea. I only had a few hours sleep, I never seem to sleep well the night before a big race and I kept hearing people banging doors in the middle of the night which meant I couldn’t get to sleep. Me and my sister left the apartment just before 8 and we then got the tram to Edinburgh. When we got into Edinburgh it was a 2 mile walk to the race village, I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad thing, it did feel like a long walk! When we arrived at the race village I used the toilets a few times, I also saw a few other runners from my running club and had a little chat with them. There was quite a long queue for the toilets, there were even people going in the bushes which tells me that there just wasn’t enough toilets.
I made my way to my wave around 9.45. The weather was feeling quite chilly, the weather forecast said it was going to be cloudy for most of the day and I thought if it stays like that then it won’t be too bad and it should be quite pleasant. The race was due to start around 10am and we crossed the start line around 10.05, it did start pretty much bang on time. I heard the the race is down hill for the first 5 miles and then it flattens out after 5 miles. My goal for this race was to run just under 8 minute/mile on the down hill section and then once it flattens out to run around 8:15 minute/mile. The route heads to Edinburgh city centre, we was running down hill but we was having to run on pebbles and I felt it wasn’t very comfortable on my feet when running on pebbles. When we reached the city centre there was lots of crowd support, the marshalls were great and it was a great atmosphere around the city centre, when we left the city centre we ran past Portobello beach, the sea views looked really lovely.
When I got to 6 miles I had my first gel, I was running around 8:15 minute/mile and I was on for 3:30 finish, I was feeling really happy at this point and I told myself I was running really well and to just keep going, the sun had come out and it was starting to feel really warm! I saw lots of blue sky and I thought hmmm this wasn’t supposed to be the forecast! I had covered 10k in 51:12, I seemed to be bang on target at this point and I was feeling pleased with my performance.
I saw my sister around 9 miles, she looked really pleased to see me and she gave me a cheer. When the route went past Portobello beach we then headed to Musselburgh, most of the route goes along the seafront, the sea views were really stunning and it was lovely to look at the sea whilst you are running. I have heard that Edinburgh can be quite windy running by the sea but it wasn’t very windy and there was only a slight breeze. The marshalls were very encouaraging, there were water stations every 3 miles and they were also handing out energy gels. The water was in bottles but they weren’t sports cap and the marshalls removed the caps from the bottles which meant you wasn’t able to hold it or run with it, I was having to have a few sips and then throw it in the bins that were provided.
There were bands on route, there were people in their gardens cheering us on and also playing loud music in the gardens, it was a really good atmosphere. I reached 13.1 miles in 1:51:12, I said to myself that I was still on for a really good time of around 3:44. When I reached 13 miles it was starting to get really hard, it was really warm, I was sweating a lot and my eyes were feeling extremely heavy. It was an out and back route and it was nice to see the fast runners on the other side of the road. There was a turn around point around 18 miles, we ran around a stately home which was really nice and scenic. There seemed to be a lot of stones to run on at that point, it felt really uncomfortable on my feet and I could feel my left foot twisting, I don’t think my shoes appreciated running on stones! I had to walk for a while until we was back on the main road again.
When I reached 18 miles I felt I was really struggling and it was a case of run/walk to the finish, I was feeling really tired and I felt I didn’t have much in the tank. I told myself to slow down my pace at that point, I said to myself that it didn’t really matter about time today, it is much harder to run when the weather conditions are warm and sunny, there were a few runners that had collapsed and that shows how hot it really was. Between mile 20-23 there was very limited spectators, this made it really hard going and you had to dig really deep, you can usually rely on the crowds to get you through the last 10k but at this race you wouldn’t see any spectators for quite a while. When you reached 23 miles the crowds did start to pick up again and I found that did help, when I got to 23 miles I said to myself just a parkrun to go now!
When I approached the finish there was lots of crowds cheering you on and it was a great atmosphere, my sister cheered me on and I gave her a wave and I then I tried to sprint to the finish line, I said to myself come on, you are almost there! I finished in a time of 3:59:09. I felt pleased to finish and was pleased to get under 4 hours. I was aiming for around 3:40 and I was on for that time for quite some time but the warm weather made it really hard going. When we crossed the finish line we collected our medal, we got a goodie box which contained a t-shirt and we also got a cereal bar and a bottle of water.
After I collected my medal I went to lie down on the grass with lots of other runners and I told myself that was a tough course! I then managed to meet up with sister and she told me that I did really well especially as it was really warm and that I didn’t get much sleep. We managed to walk into Musselburgh and found a pub and had a celebration drink.
taralovestorun 
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